


like the red sea you split me open

by cymbidium_roseum (kroalias)



Category: Pandora Hearts
Genre: (how do tags even work), Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, M/M, Pandora Witness Protection Program, and elliot and leo making fun of oz for being a sappy loser, surprise tea parties, the ozbert is basically just awkward staring at each other, yes hello have gratuitous references to basically everything i still remember from the plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-28 03:08:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13262349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kroalias/pseuds/cymbidium_roseum
Summary: As good as Oz was at recognizing repeat customers, it took him nearly a week to realize that the dark-haired man visited the shop every day, staying for hours with his coffee.Watching.Staring.At Oz.A typical day at Café Sablier ends a bit differently than Oz was expecting. Tea and cookies are shared, a tray finds an unexpected use, and a disastrous birthday party makes a comeback.





	like the red sea you split me open

**Author's Note:**

> This is my Secret Santa gift for aph-englend over on Tumblr! I'm so so so sorry this is late T.T  
> I can't do cute and sappy so have cute and sappy + action? idk, it works (or at least I hope it does). I'm also super sorry if this is OOC; I haven't read the manga in ages so the characters are shaped by what I remember them being like + whatever fanfiction I've read recently.  
> I actually really like this AU, so I might expand this, but no promises.  
> Title from "All You Did Was Save My Life" by Our Lady Peace.

As good as Oz was at recognizing repeat customers, it took him nearly a week to realize that the dark-haired man visited the shop every day, staying for hours with his coffee. 

Watching.

_ Staring _ . At Oz. It was a bit creepy, but the man was good looking and he got a fresh cup of coffee every two hours on the dot. A good customer  _ and _ a nice distraction from the monotony of work (riling Elliot up only worked so many times, after all). 

Nevertheless, there he was, and Oz couldn’t believe that he hadn’t noticed sooner. He’d gotten a solid two weeks of shooting quick glances at the man and embarrassing him, but his lack of attention had deprived him of an extra week of this. 

Oz looked up from the counter he was wiping down and was rewarded with the sight of the man quickly looking down at the pages of his book once more, face bright red. He couldn’t resist a grin; this happened every time he caught the man watching him.

“Oi!” Elliot flicked him in the back of his head. “Where’s that milk I asked for?” 

Oz sighed. “I need to finish washing this,” he said, gesturing to the row of mugs stacked neatly next to the sink. 

In response, Elliot scowled. “We have plenty of clean mugs. I promise we won’t run out in the ten seconds it’ll take you to go to the back. Now go and stop staring at Gi–  _ your friend _ before I suggest to Leo that you should help him with inventory.”

“Fine.” He set down the mug he was holding – he hadn’t even  _ started _ doing the dishes – and went to retrieve Elliot’s milk. By the time he returned to the front, he had realized two things.

The first: his favorite tea and cookies were back. This called for a tea party during his break. (Elliot was going to  _ hate  _ him. Leo would probably join Oz in the revelry.)

The second: Elliot knew the dark-haired man. 

With a knowing smirk, Oz sidled up to Elliot and set the jug of milk down on the counter between them. “How do you know he’s not staring at  _ you _ ?”

Elliot inhaled deeply. “If you don’t want me to spill this latte over both of us, go back to your dishes and never mention that again.”

“What? I’m just curious.” Regardless, Oz did as he said.

 

True to his prediction, Elliot stormed away into the back when Oz brought out his cookies and tea at the start of his break and went around flamboyantly offering them to the customers that didn’t look like they’d knock his tray out of his hands if he approached them (he had a knack for spotting that). The mystery man took a cookie without looking at Oz; his attention was very pointedly fixed on the book he clearly wasn’t reading. 

When he returned to the counter, Leo had taken Elliot’s place behind the register. He gave a mocking glower. “You’re the reason we never have any of these cookies.”

Oz laughed. “We can always get more.” He set his tray down and grabbed one of the few remaining cookies to munch on. “By the way, can you help me?”

Leo swiped one of the cookies. “With what?”

Oz leaned over and lowered his voice to a whisper. “See that guy in the corner? I swear Elliot knows him but he won’t tell me who he is.”

An odd expression flitted across Leo’s face, but it was gone too quickly for Oz to decipher it. “Why do you want to know?”

“I just do! I mean, he’s here  _ every day _ .”

Leo snorted and straightened up at the sound of the cafe’s door opening. “Sorry, buddy, I’m not helping you stalk your crush.”

“Leooooooo.”

“Not happening.” 

The new customer approached the counter and Leo quickly tossed his hair back to partially uncover his face. “Good afternoon, welcome to Café Sablier. What can I get for you?”

Without a word, the woman pulled a handgun out of her purse and aimed it at Oz. Before he could even try to think of a way to shield himself, the woman was hit in the shoulder with the cookie tray, scattering crumbs all over the counter and shifting the target away from Oz. As she fell to the ground, the dark-haired man rushed over, wrenching the hand holding her gun even farther away from him. They went down, falling to the floor in front of the counter, and he heard a loud thud. 

Something tugged at the back of Oz’s apron and he shrieked, joining the cacophony of panicked sounds coming from the other customers rushing to escape the shop. He spun around to find Elliot, looking far more serious than usual. (Note: he  _ was _ capable of not looking annoyed and/or exasperated 24/7. Huh.)

“Come on, we gotta go. There’s probably more of them out there.”

“What?”

Elliot didn’t even roll his eyes at him; that’s how Oz knew the gravity of the situation. He nodded mutely and followed Elliot into the back, past the open boxes of paper cups he must’ve been sorting through when the incident began. He heard a noise behind them and tensed up, but it was only Leo and the dark-haired man. (His  _ savior _ ). 

The four of them slipped into the alleyway behind the shop. In the distance, sirens echoed through the streets of the city, quickly approaching them. Clearly someone had called the police, and judging from the trio of exasperated looks around him, it had been the incorrect response. 

They walked down the alley a bit and Oz was amused to see Leo’s car parked haphazardly behind a dumpster. “What, no parking out on the street?” he asked.

“ _ Somebody _ had to plan for a quick getaway,” Leo said. “Get in the back.”

Oz was completely confused by the whole situation, but at least he wasn’t terrified out of his mind yet (it had to be the shock). He slipped into the back seat, followed a moment later by the dark haired man, who took one look at Oz and immediately pressed himself into the far door. The tips of his ears, just poking through his loose curls, were bright red. 

“No making out back there,” Leo said, starting up the car. It was Oz’s turn to blush, and he heard Elliot cackle. 

No dramatic shootouts or car chases ensued. They left the vicinity of the cafe without incident and Leo drove them to a small, nondescript house in a part of the city Oz had never been to before. He was bursting with questions – and, quite frankly, terrified, now that the whole almost-getting-shot-in-the-face thing caught up with him – but he waited until the car was in the garage, the door shut behind them, and Leo had shut off the ignition. 

“What,” he said, drawing in a shaky breath, “is going on here?”

Elliot exchanged an unreadable look with Leo before twisting around in his seat further to look at Oz. “I don’t suppose you remember a certain party out in the countryside about, say, two years ago?”

Scarlet capes filled Oz’s vision; the soft light of the car’s overhead light disappeared in a flash of lightning, and a booming voice broke the silence. 

_ “Your sin is _ –”

“I take it that’s a yes,” Elliot said, snapping Oz back to the present. He had drawn his legs up onto the seat at some point, and he buried his face behind his knees to try to calm his breathing. He had forgotten that – tried to, pushing it to the darkest recesses of his mind, suppressing an alarming amount of his memories from that entire year in the process (who needed those anyway?)

“What do you know about that?” he rasped. 

“We’ll talk about that later. Let’s get you inside first.”

Slowly, he loosened his death grip around his legs and unfolded himself. He looked around at them – Leo, Elliot, the stranger – and chuckled weakly. “Let me guess. You’re some secret organization here to whisk me away before those –  _ they _ took me. Again.”

Leo raised an eyebrow approvingly. “In a nutshell, yeah. Sorry to spring it on you so suddenly, but, as you said, it’s all a big secret.”

“So who are you?”

“You’ll find out soon enough,” Elliot said. 

Leo grinned. “He means, who is  _ he _ .” Answering his own question, he added, “This is Gilbert. Also, he’s Elliot’s brother.”

“He’s  _ not _ !” Elliot snapped, nearly drowning out Gilbert’s dismayed, “It’s  _ Raven! _ ” They set to bickering, and Oz, suddenly uncomfortable (he’d been  _ flirting _ with Elliot’s  _ brother _ this entire time? he was so, so, so dead) opened the door and slipped outside the car. Leo followed him. 

“Sorry about them,” he said, gesturing at the car, where Elliot’s voice was quickly growing in volume. “They do that. We  _ are _ here to keep you safe, though.”

“Thanks,” Oz croaked, smiling weakly at him. His throat was so dry. The “tea party” earlier felt so long ago now, as if part of a different lifetime. He was tired, so tired, and part of him didn’t want to trust these people, and this situation he’d suddenly landed himself in. 

But he’d worked with Elliot and Leo for months, and while he clearly didn’t know them as well as he thought he did, they obviously had his well-being at heart (even if Elliot was currently denying any involvement with the three of them in a shout loud enough to break the sound barrier). He finally nodded and followed Leo into the recesses of the house.

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi on [tumblr!](http://kroalias.tumblr.com)


End file.
